Enhanced pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol conversion in lactic acid bacteria

ABSTRACT

A high flux of metabolites from pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol in  Lactobacillus plantarum  was achieved through genetic engineering. Substantial elimination of lactate dehydrogenase activity in the presence of heterologously expressed butanediol dehydrogenase activity led to 2,3 butanediol production that was at least 49% of the total of major pyruvate-derived products.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/100,786, filed Sep. 29, 2008, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of industrial microbiology and the metabolism of lactic acid bacteria. More specifically, engineering lactic acid bacteria for a high flux from pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol allows increased production of 2,3-butanediol and compounds in pathways including 2,3-butanediol as an upstream substrate.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone, and 2-butanol are important industrial chemicals. 2,3-butanediol may be used in the chemical synthesis of butene and butadiene, important industrial chemicals currently obtained from cracked petroleum, and esters of 2,3-butanediol may be used as plasticizers (Voloch et al. Fermentation Derived 2,3-Butanediol, in Comprehensive Biotechnology, Pergamon Press Ltd, England Vol 2, Section 3:933-947 (1986)). 2-Butanone, also referred to as methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), is a widely used solvent and is the most important commercially produced ketone, after acetone. It is used as a solvent for paints, resins, and adhesives, as well as a selective extractant, activator of oxidative reactions, and it can be chemically converted to 2-butanol by reacting with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst (Nystrom, R. F. and Brown, W. G. (J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1947) 69:1198). Butanol is an important industrial chemical, useful as a fuel additive, as a feedstock chemical in the plastics industry, and as a foodgrade extractant in the food and flavor industry. Each year 10 to 12 billion pounds of butanol are produced by petrochemical means and the need for this commodity chemical will likely increase.

Microorganisms may be engineered for expression of biosynthetic pathways for production of 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone, and/or 2-butanol. US Patent Pub US20070292927A1 discloses the engineering of recombinant microorganisms for expression of a biosynthetic pathway having 2,3-butanediol and 2-butanone as intermediates and 2-butanol as the end product. The pathway initiates with cellular pyruvate. Thus production of 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone, and 2-butanol is limited by the availability of pyruvate substrate flow from natural host pathways into this engineered biosynthetic pathway.

In lactic acid bacteria, a limited amount of 2,3-butanediol may be produced naturally, but the major pyruvate metabolic pathway is conversion to lactate through activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Metabolic engineering to redirect pyruvate from lactate to other products in lactic acid bacteria has had unpredictable results. Production of alanine in LDH-deficient Lactococcus lactis expressing alanine dehydrogenase was shown by Hols et al. (Nature Biotech. 17:588-592 (1999). However, production of ethanol in LDH-deficient Lactobacillus plantarum expressing pyruvate decarboxylase was very limited, with carbon flow not significantly improved toward ethanol and lactate still produced (Liu et al. (2006) J. Ind. Micro. Biotech. 33:1-7).

Where a lactic acid bacteria is the preferred host for the production of 2-butanol and 2-butanone, a need exists therefore for lactic acid bacteria to have a tightly regulated carbon flow from pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol. To date no bacteria has been engineered to produce this advantage and the art suggests that simply reducing the carbon flow from pyruvate to lactate via lactate dehydrogenase may not be sufficient. Applicants have solved the stated problem through the unexpected discovery that introduction of a heterologous polypeptide having butanediol dehydrogenase activity in combination with reduction in endogenous lactate dehydrogenase results in unpredictably high rates of conversion of pyruvate to down stream products and particularly 2,3-butanediol.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Provided herein are recombinant lactic acid bacterial cells comprising at least one gene encoding a heterologous polypeptide having butanediol dehydrogenase activity wherein the bacterial cell is substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity and wherein the cell produces 2,3-butanediol. In one embodiment, the bacterial cell comprises a disruption in at least one endogenous gene encoding a polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity. In one embodiment, the cell is a member of a genus selected from the group consisting of Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Oenococcus, Pediococcus, and Streptococcus.

In one embodiment, the cell comprises at least one genetic modification that reduces pyruvate formate lyase activity. In some embodiments, the genetic modification affects a gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase, a gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase activating enzyme, or both. In some embodiments, the gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase is selected from the group consisting of pfl, pflB1 and pfl B2 and the gene encoding formate C-acetyltransferase activating enzyme is selected from the group consisting of pflA, pflA1, and pflA2.

Also provided are embodiments wherein the cell produces a product selected from the group consisting of lactate, acetoin, ethanol, succinate, and formate. In some embodiments, 2,3-butanediol comprises at least about 49 Mol % of all products produced from pyruvate.

In some embodiments, the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity is encoded by a gene selected from the group consisting of ldhL, ldhD, ldhL1, and ldhL2.

In one embodiment, the lactic acid host cell is Lactobacillus plantarum and the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity has an amino acid sequence that has at least about 95% identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 2,4, and 6. In one embodiment, the lactic acid host cell is Lactococcus lactis and the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity has an amino acid sequence that has at least about 95% identity to the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:20. In another embodiment, lactic acid host cell is Leuconostoc mesenteroides and the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity has an amino acid sequence that has at least about 95% identity to the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:22. In another embodiment, the lactic acid host cell is Streptococcus thermophilus and the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity has an amino acid sequence that has at least about 95% identity to the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:24. In another embodiment, the lactic acid host cell is Pediococcus pentosaceus and the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity has an amino acid sequence that has at least about 95% identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:26 and 28. In another embodiment, the lactic acid host cell is Lactobacillus acidophilus and the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity has an amino acid sequence that has at least about 95% identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:30, 32 and 34.

In one embodiment, the heterologous polypeptide having butanediol dehydrogenase activity has an amino acid sequence that has at least about 95% identity to a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 13, 64 and 66.

In one embodiment, the cell produces 2-butanone, and in one embodiment, the cell comprises a 2-butanone biosynthetic pathway. In one embodiment, the cell produces 2-butanol, and in one embodiment, the cell produces a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway.

Also provided herein are methods for the production of 2-butanol comprising: providing a recombinant lactic acid bacterial cell comprising a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway; and growing the bacterial cell of step (a) under conditions whereby 2-butanol is produced.

Also provided are methods for the production of 2-butanone comprising: providing a recombinant lactic acid bacterial cell comprising a 2-butanone biosynthetic pathway; and b) growing the bacterial cell of step (a) under conditions whereby 2-butanone is produced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES AND SEQUENCE DESCRIPTIONS

The various embodiments of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description, the figures, and the accompanying sequence descriptions, which form a part of this application.

FIG. 1 shows a biosynthetic pathway for biosynthesis of 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone, and 2-butanol.

FIG. 2 shows a graph of products made in L. plantarum strains PN0512 (control) and PNP0001 (ldhDldhL1 deletion strain).

FIG. 3 shows a graph of products made in L. plantarum strains BP134 (control with budC and sadB genes), PNP0001 (ldh deletion), and PNP0002 (ldh deletion with budC and sadB genes) grown in rich medium.

FIG. 4 illustrates common lactate fermentation pathways in lactic acid bacteria.

The invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying sequence descriptions which form a part of this application.

The following sequences conform with 37 C.F.R. 1.821-1.825 (“Requirements for Patent Applications Containing Nucleotide Sequences and/or Amino Acid Sequence Disclosures—the Sequence Rules”) and are consistent with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST.25 (1998) and the sequence listing requirements of the EPO and PCT (Rules 5.2 and 49.5(a-bis), and Section 208 and Annex C of the Administrative Instructions). The symbols and format used for nucleotide and amino acid sequence data comply with the rules set forth in 37 C.F.R. §1.822.

TABLE 1 SEQ ID NOs of lactate dehydrogenase coding regions and proteins SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Organism and gene name nucleic acid amino acid Lactobacillus plantarum ldhD 1 2 Lactobacillus plantarum ldhL1 3 4 Lactobacillus plantarum ldhL2 5 6 Lactococcus lactis ldhL 19 20 Leuconostoc mesenteroides ldhD 21 22 Streptococcus thermophilus ldhL 23 24 Pediococcus pentosaceus ldhD 25 26 Pediococcus pentosaceus ldhL 27 28 Lactobacillus acidophilus ldhL1 29 30 Lactobacillus acidophilus ldhL2 31 32 Lactobacillus acidophilus ldhD 33 34

TABLE 2 SEQ ID NOs of butanediol dehydrogenase coding regions and proteins SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Description nucleic acid amino acid budC, butanediol dehydrogenase from 12 13 Klebsiella pneumoniae IAM1063 butanediol dehydrogenase from 63 64 Bacillus cereus butB, butanediol dehydrogenase from 65 66 Lactococcus lactis

TABLE 3 SEQ ID NOs of pyruvate formate lyase and pyruvate formate lyase activating enzyme coding regions and proteins SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Organism and gene name nucleic acid amino acid PflB1 from Lactobacillus plantarum 69 70 PflB2 from Lactobacillus plantarum 71 72 PflA1 from Lactobacillus plantarum 73 74 PflA2 from Lactobacillus plantarum 75 76 Pfl from Lactococcus lactis 77 78 PflA from Lactococcus lactis 79 80 Pfl from Streptococcus thermophilus 81 82 PflA from Streptococcus thermophilus 83 84

TABLE 4 SEQ ID NOs of expression coding regions and proteins SEQ ID NO: SEQ ID NO: Description nucleic acid amino acid Achromobacter xylosoxidans secondary 9 10 alcohol dehydrogenase sadB Roseburia inulinivorans butanediol 15 16 dehydratase rdhtA Roseburia inulinivorans butanediol 17 18 dehydratase reactivase rdhtB ALS from Bacillus subtilis 85 86 ALS from Bacillus subtilis coding region 87  86* optimized for Lactobacillus plantarum ALS from Klebsiella pneumoniae (budB) 88 89 ALS from Lactococcus lactis 90 91 ALS from Staphylococcus aureus 92 93 ALS from Listeria monocytogenes 94 95 ALS from Streptococcus mutans 96 97 ALS from Streptococcus thermophilus 98 99 ALS from Vibrio angustum 100 101  ALS from Bacillus cereus 102 103  *same protein sequence encoded by native and optimized sequence

SEQ ID NO:7 is the nucleotide sequence of the coding region for orotidine-5′-phosphate decarboxylase from L. plantarum.

SEQ ID NO:8 is the nucleotide sequence of the L. plantarum ldhL1 promoter.

SEQ ID NO:11 is the nucleotide sequence of the S. cerevisiae FBA promoter.

SEQ ID NO:14 is the nucleotide sequence of the S. cerevisiae GPM1 promoter.

SEQ ID NOs:35-38 are plasmids pFP996, pFP996PldhL1, pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB, and pFP996PldhL1-budC, respectively.

SEQ ID NOs:39-50, 52-62, and 104-113 are PCR, sequencing or cloning primers.

SEQ ID NO:51 is the nucleotide sequence of a ribosome binding site.

SEQ ID NO:67 is the sequence of a synthetic fragment containing coding regions for Roseburia inulinivorans B₁₂-independent diol dehydratase and reactivase.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to recombinant lactic acid bacterial (LAB) cells that are genetically modified to have improved conversion of pyruvate, and in particular endogenous pyruvate, to 2,3-butanediol. The LAB cells express a heterologous butanediol dehydratase and are substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity. In addition, the present invention relates to methods of producing 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone, or 2-butanol using the present genetically modified LAB cells. Production of these compounds in lactic acid bacteria will reduce the need for petrochemicals for their production as industrial chemicals for applications as solvents and/or extractants, and these compounds may replace fossil fuels either directly or as intermediates for further chemical synthesis of fossil fuel replacements.

The following abbreviations and definitions will be used for the interpretation of the specification and the claims.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having,” “contains” or “containing,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a composition, a mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such composition, mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).

Also, the indefinite articles “a” and “an” preceding an element or component of the invention are intended to be nonrestrictive regarding the number of instances (i.e. occurrences) of the element or component.

Therefore “a” or “an” should be read to include one or at least one, and the singular word form of the element or component also includes the plural unless the number is obviously meant to be singular.

The term “invention” or “present invention” as used herein is a non-limiting term and is not intended to refer to any single embodiment of the particular invention but encompasses all possible embodiments as described in the specification and the claims.

As used herein, the term “about” modifying the quantity of an ingredient or reactant of the invention employed refers to variation in the numerical quantity that can occur, for example, through typical measuring and liquid handling procedures used for making concentrates or use solutions in the real world; through inadvertent error in these procedures; through differences in the manufacture, source, or purity of the ingredients employed to make the compositions or carry out the methods; and the like. The term “about” also encompasses amounts that differ due to different equilibrium conditions for a composition resulting from a particular initial mixture. Whether or not modified by the term “about”, the claims include equivalents to the quantities. In one embodiment, the term “about” means within 10% of the reported numerical value, preferably within 5% of the reported numerical value.

The term “2-butanol biosynthetic pathway” refers to an enzyme pathway to produce 2-butanol from pyruvate.

The term “2-butanone biosynthetic pathway” refers to an enzyme pathway to produce 2-butanone from pyruvate

The term “butanediol dehydrogenase” also known as “acetoin reductase” refers to a polypeptide (or polypeptides) having an enzyme activity that catalyzes the conversion of acetoin to 2,3-butanediol. Butanediol dehydrogenases are a subset of the broad family of alcohol dehydrogenases. Butanediol dehydrogenase enzymes may have specificity for production of (R)- or (S)-stereochemistry in the alcohol product. (S)-specific butanediol dehydrogenases are known as EC 1.1.1.76 and are available, for example, from Klebsiella pneumoniae (DNA: SEQ ID NO: 12, protein: SEQ ID NO: 13). (R)-specific butanediol dehydrogenases are known as EC 1.1.1.4 and are available, for example, from Bacillus cereus (DNA: SEQ ID NO:63, protein: SEQ ID NO:64), and Lactococcus lactis (DNA: SEQ ID NO:65, protein: SEQ ID NO:66).

The term “lactate dehydrogenase” refers to a polypeptide (or polypeptides) having an enzyme activity that catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to lactate. Lactate dehydrogenases are known as EC 1.1.1.27 (L-lactate dehydrogenase) or EC 1.1.1.28 (D-lactate dehydrogenase) and are further described herein.

The term “substantially free” when used in reference to the presence or absence of lactate dehydrogenase enzyme activity means that the level of the enzyme is substantially less than that of the same enzyme in the wild-type host, where less than 50% of the wild-type level is preferred and less than about 90% of the wild-type level is most preferred. The reduced level of enzyme activity may be attributable to genetic modification genes encoding this enzyme such that expression levels of the enzyme are reduced.

The term “a facultative anaerobe” refers to a microorganism that can grow in both aerobic and anaerobic environments.

The term “carbon substrate” or “fermentable carbon substrate” refers to a carbon source capable of being metabolized by host organisms of the present invention and particularly carbon sources selected from the group consisting of monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, and one-carbon substrates or mixtures thereof.

The term “additional electron sink” refers to an electron sink or production of an electron sink that is not included in the biosynthetic pathway for the desired product.

The term “gene” refers to a nucleic acid fragment that is capable of being expressed as a specific protein, optionally including regulatory sequences preceding (5′ non-coding sequences) and following (3′ non-coding sequences) the coding sequence. “Native gene” refers to a gene as found in nature with its own regulatory sequences. “Chimeric gene” refers to any gene that is not a native gene, comprising regulatory and coding sequences that are not found together in nature. Accordingly, a chimeric gene may comprise regulatory sequences and coding sequences that are derived from different sources, or regulatory sequences and coding sequences derived from the same source, but arranged in a manner different than that found in nature. “Endogenous gene” refers to a native gene in its natural location in the genome of an organism. A “foreign gene” or “heterologous gene” refers to a gene not normally found in the host organism, but that is introduced into the host organism by gene transfer. “Heterologous gene” includes a native coding region, or portion thereof, that is reintroduced into the source organism in a form that is different from the corresponding native gene. For example, a heterologous gene may include a native coding region that is a portion of a chimeric gene including non-native regulatory regions that is reintroduced into the native host. Also a foreign gene can comprise native genes inserted into a non-native organism, or chimeric genes. A “transgene” is a gene that has been introduced into the genome by a transformation procedure.

As used herein the term “coding region” refers to a DNA sequence that codes for a specific amino acid sequence. “Suitable regulatory sequences” refer to nucleotide sequences located upstream (5′ non-coding sequences), within, or downstream (3′ non-coding sequences) of a coding sequence, and which influence the transcription, RNA processing or stability, or translation of the associated coding sequence. Regulatory sequences may include promoters, translation leader sequences, introns, polyadenylation recognition sequences, RNA processing site, effector binding site and stem-loop structure.

The term “promoter” refers to a DNA sequence capable of controlling the expression of a coding sequence or functional RNA. In general, a coding sequence is located 3′ to a promoter sequence. Promoters may be derived in their entirety from a native gene, or be composed of different elements derived from different promoters found in nature, or even comprise synthetic DNA segments. It is understood by those skilled in the art that different promoters may direct the expression of a gene in different tissues or cell types, or at different stages of development, or in response to different environmental or physiological conditions. Promoters which cause a gene to be expressed in most cell types at most times are commonly referred to as “constitutive promoters”. It is further recognized that since in most cases the exact boundaries of regulatory sequences have not been completely defined, DNA fragments of different lengths may have identical promoter activity.

The term “operably linked” refers to the association of nucleic acid sequences on a single nucleic acid fragment so that the function of one is affected by the other. For example, a promoter is operably linked with a coding sequence when it is capable of effecting the expression of that coding sequence (i.e., that the coding sequence is under the transcriptional control of the promoter). Coding sequences can be operably linked to regulatory sequences in sense or antisense orientation.

The term “expression”, as used herein, refers to the transcription and stable accumulation of sense (mRNA) or antisense RNA derived from the nucleic acid fragment of the invention. Expression may also refer to translation of mRNA into a polypeptide.

As used herein the term “transformation” refers to the transfer of a nucleic acid fragment into a host organism, resulting in genetically stable inheritance. Host organisms containing the transformed nucleic acid fragments are referred to as “transgenic” or “recombinant” or “transformed” organisms.

The terms “plasmid” and “vector” as used herein, refer to an extra chromosomal element often carrying genes which are not part of the central metabolism of the cell, and usually in the form of circular double-stranded DNA molecules. Such elements may be autonomously replicating sequences, genome integrating sequences, phage or nucleotide sequences, linear or circular, of a single- or double-stranded DNA or RNA, derived from any source, in which a number of nucleotide sequences have been joined or recombined into a unique construction which is capable of introducing a promoter fragment and DNA sequence for a selected gene product along with appropriate 3′ untranslated sequence into a cell.

As used herein the term “codon degeneracy” refers to the nature in the genetic code permitting variation of the nucleotide sequence without effecting the amino acid sequence of an encoded polypeptide. The skilled artisan is well aware of the “codon-bias” exhibited by a specific host cell in usage of nucleotide codons to specify a given amino acid. Therefore, when synthesizing a gene for improved expression in a host cell, it is desirable to design the gene such that its frequency of codon usage approaches the frequency of preferred codon usage of the host cell.

The term “codon-optimized” as it refers to genes or coding regions of nucleic acid molecules for transformation of various hosts, refers to the alteration of codons in the gene or coding regions of the nucleic acid molecules to reflect the typical codon usage of the host organism without altering the polypeptide encoded by the DNA.

As used herein, an “isolated nucleic acid fragment” or “isolated nucleic acid molecule” will be used interchangeably and will mean a polymer of RNA or DNA that is single- or double-stranded, optionally containing synthetic, non-natural or altered nucleotide bases. An isolated nucleic acid fragment in the form of a polymer of DNA may be comprised of one or more segments of cDNA, genomic DNA or synthetic DNA.

A nucleic acid fragment is “hybridizable” to another nucleic acid fragment, such as a cDNA, genomic DNA, or RNA molecule, when a single-stranded form of the nucleic acid fragment can anneal to the other nucleic acid fragment under the appropriate conditions of temperature and solution ionic strength. Hybridization and washing conditions are well known and exemplified in Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989), particularly Chapter 11 and Table 11.1 therein (entirely incorporated herein by reference). The conditions of temperature and ionic strength determine the “stringency” of the hybridization. Stringency conditions can be adjusted to screen for moderately similar fragments (such as homologous sequences from distantly related organisms), to highly similar fragments (such as genes that duplicate functional enzymes from closely related organisms). Post-hybridization washes determine stringency conditions. One set of preferred conditions uses a series of washes starting with 6×SSC, 0.5% SDS at room temperature for 15 min, then repeated with 2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 45° C. for 30 min, and then repeated twice with 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 50° C. for 30 min. A more preferred set of stringent conditions uses higher temperatures in which the washes are identical to those above except for the temperature of the final two 30 min washes in 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS was increased to 60° C. Another preferred set of highly stringent conditions uses two final washes in 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C. An additional set of stringent conditions include hybridization at 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 65° C. and washes with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, for example.

Hybridization requires that the two nucleic acids contain complementary sequences, although depending on the stringency of the hybridization, mismatches between bases are possible. The appropriate stringency for hybridizing nucleic acids depends on the length of the nucleic acids and the degree of complementation, variables well known in the art. The greater the degree of similarity or homology between two nucleotide sequences, the greater the value of Tm for hybrids of nucleic acids having those sequences. The relative stability (corresponding to higher Tm) of nucleic acid hybridizations decreases in the following order: RNA:RNA, DNA:RNA, DNA:DNA. For hybrids of greater than 100 nucleotides in length, equations for calculating Tm have been derived (see Sambrook et al., supra, 9.50-9.51). For hybridizations with shorter nucleic acids, i.e., oligonucleotides, the position of mismatches becomes more important, and the length of the oligonucleotide determines its specificity (see Sambrook et al., supra, 11.7-11.8). In one embodiment the length for a hybridizable nucleic acid is at least about 10 nucleotides. Preferably a minimum length for a hybridizable nucleic acid is at least about 15 nucleotides; more preferably at least about 20 nucleotides; and most preferably the length is at least about 30 nucleotides. Furthermore, the skilled artisan will recognize that the temperature and wash solution salt concentration may be adjusted as necessary according to factors such as length of the probe.

A “substantial portion” of an amino acid or nucleotide sequence is that portion comprising enough of the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide or the nucleotide sequence of a gene to putatively identify that polypeptide or gene, either by manual evaluation of the sequence by one skilled in the art, or by computer-automated sequence comparison and identification using algorithms such as BLAST (Altschul, S. F., et al., J. Mol. Biol., 215:403-410 (1993)). In general, a sequence of ten or more contiguous amino acids or thirty or more nucleotides is necessary in order to putatively identify a polypeptide or nucleic acid sequence as homologous to a known protein or gene. Moreover, with respect to nucleotide sequences, gene specific oligonucleotide probes comprising 20-30 contiguous nucleotides may be used in sequence-dependent methods of gene identification (e.g., Southern hybridization) and isolation (e.g., in situ hybridization of bacterial colonies or bacteriophage plaques). In addition, short oligonucleotides of 12-15 bases may be used as amplification primers in PCR in order to obtain a particular nucleic acid fragment comprising the primers. Accordingly, a “substantial portion” of a nucleotide sequence comprises enough of the sequence to specifically identify and/or isolate a nucleic acid fragment comprising the sequence. The instant specification teaches the complete amino acid and nucleotide sequence encoding particular fungal proteins. The skilled artisan, having the benefit of the sequences as reported herein, may now use all or a substantial portion of the disclosed sequences for purposes known to those skilled in this art. Accordingly, the instant invention comprises the complete sequences as reported in the accompanying Sequence Listing, as well as substantial portions of those sequences as defined above.

The term “complementary” is used to describe the relationship between nucleotide bases that are capable of hybridizing to one another. For example, with respect to DNA, adenosine is complementary to thymine and cytosine is complementary to guanine.

The term “percent identity”, as known in the art, is a relationship between two or more polypeptide sequences or two or more polynucleotide sequences, as determined by comparing the sequences. In the art, “identity” also means the degree of sequence relatedness between polypeptide or polynucleotide sequences, as the case may be, as determined by the match between strings of such sequences. “Identity” and “similarity” can be readily calculated by known methods, including but not limited to those described in: 1.) Computational Molecular Biology (Lesk, A. M., Ed.) Oxford University: NY (1988); 2.) Biocomputing: Informatics and Genome Projects (Smith, D. W., Ed.) Academic: NY (1993); 3.) Computer Analysis of Sequence Data, Part I (Griffin, A. M., and Griffin, H. G., Eds.) Humania: NJ (1994); 4.) Sequence Analysis in Molecular Biology (von Heinje, G., Ed.) Academic (1987); and 5.) Sequence Analysis Primer (Gribskov, M. and Devereux, J., Eds.) Stockton: NY (1991).

Preferred methods to determine identity are designed to give the best match between the sequences tested. Methods to determine identity and similarity are codified in publicly available computer programs. Sequence alignments and percent identity calculations may be performed using the MegAlign™ program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc., Madison, Wis.). Multiple alignment of the sequences is performed using the “Clustal method of alignment” which encompasses several varieties of the algorithm including the “Clustal V method of alignment” corresponding to the alignment method labeled Clustal V (described by Higgins and Sharp, CABIOS. 5:151-153 (1989); Higgins, D. G. et al., Comput. Appl. Biosci., 8:189-191 (1992)) and found in the MegAlign™ program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc.). For multiple alignments, the default values correspond to GAP PENALTY=10 and GAP LENGTH PENALTY=10. Default parameters for pairwise alignments and calculation of percent identity of protein sequences using the Clustal method are KTUPLE=1, GAP PENALTY=3, WINDOW=5 and DIAGONALS SAVED=5. For nucleic acids these parameters are KTUPLE=2, GAP PENALTY=5, WINDOW=4 and DIAGONALS SAVED=4. After alignment of the sequences using the Clustal V program, it is possible to obtain a “percent identity” by viewing the “sequence distances” table in the same program. Additionally the “Clustal W method of alignment” is available and corresponds to the alignment method labeled Clustal W (described by Higgins and Sharp, CABIOS. 5:151-153 (1989); Higgins, D. G. et al., Comput. Appl. Biosci. 8:189-191 (1992), Thompson, J. D., Higgins, D. G., and Gibson T. J. (1994) Nuc. Acid Res. 22: 4673 4680) and found in the MegAlign™ v6.1 program of the LASERGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc.). Default parameters for multiple alignment (GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=0.2, Delay Divergen Seqs(%)=30, DNA Transition Weight=0.5, Protein Weight Matrix=Gonnet Series, DNA Weight Matrix=IUB). After alignment of the sequences using the Clustal W program, it is possible to obtain a “percent identity” by viewing the “sequence distances” table in the same program.

It is well understood by one skilled in the art that many levels of sequence identity are useful in identifying polypeptides, from other species, wherein such polypeptides have the same or similar function or activity. Useful examples of percent identities include, but are not limited to: 24%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45%, 50%, 55%, 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95%, or any integer percentage from 24% to 100% may be useful in describing the present invention, such as 25%, 26%, 27%, 28%, 29%, 30%, 31%, 32%, 33%, 34%, 35%, 36%, 37%, 38%, 39%, 40%, 41%, 42%, 43%, 44%, 45%, 46%, 47%, 48%, 49%, 50%, 51%, 52%, 53%, 54%, 55%, 56%, 57%, 58%, 59%, 60%, 61%, 62%, 63%, 64%, 65%, 66%, 67%, 68%, 69%, 70%, 71%, 72%, 73%, 74%, 75%, 76%, 77%, 78%, 79%, 80%, 81%, 82%, 83%, 84%, 85%, 86%, 87%, 88%, 89%, 90%, 91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99%. Suitable nucleic acid fragments not only have the above homologies but typically encode a polypeptide having at least 50 amino acids, preferably at least 100 amino acids, more preferably at least 150 amino acids, still more preferably at least 200 amino acids, and most preferably at least 250 amino acids.

The term “sequence analysis software” refers to any computer algorithm or software program that is useful for the analysis of nucleotide or amino acid sequences. “Sequence analysis software” may be commercially available or independently developed. Typical sequence analysis software will include, but is not limited to: 1.) the GCG suite of programs (Wisconsin Package Version 9.0, Genetics Computer Group (GCG), Madison, Wis.); 2.) BLASTP, BLASTN, BLASTX (Altschul et al., J. Mol. Biol., 215:403-410 (1990)); 3.) DNASTAR (DNASTAR, Inc. Madison, Wis.); 4.) Sequencher (Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, Mich.); and 5.) the FASTA program incorporating the Smith-Waterman algorithm (W. R. Pearson, Comput. Methods Genome Res., [Proc. Int. Symp.] (1994), Meeting Date 1992, 111-20. Editor(s): Suhai, Sandor. Plenum: New York, N.Y.). Within the context of this application it will be understood that where sequence analysis software is used for analysis, that the results of the analysis will be based on the “default values” of the program referenced, unless otherwise specified. As used herein “default values” will mean any set of values or parameters that originally load with the software when first initialized.

Standard recombinant DNA and molecular cloning techniques used here are well known in the art and are described by Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Second Edition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989) (hereinafter “Maniatis”); and by Silhavy, T. J., Bennan, M. L. and Enquist, L. W., Experiments with Gene Fusions, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1984); and by Ausubel, F. M. et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, published by Greene Publishing Assoc. and Wiley-Interscience (1987).

High Flux of Pyruvate to 2,3-Butanediol in Lactic Acid Bacteria

The present invention discloses that a high proportion of pyruvate may be converted to 2,3-butanediol in lactic acid bacterial cells when the cells are genetically modified to be substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity and genetically modified to express heterologous polypeptides having butanediol dehydrogenase activity.

Lactic acid bacteria are well characterized and have been used commercially for many years for the production of a wide variety of products. A number of fermentation pathways exist in nature for the metabolism of sugars though pyruvate (see FIG. 4), however lactic acid bacteria have systems that favor the conversion of pyruvate to lactic acid via lactic acid dehydrogenase. It is an object of the present invention to maximize carbon flow from pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol for the production of 2-butanol and 2-butanone (FIGS. 4, and 1). Surprisingly, as described herein, it was found that the pathway modifications of the present invention resulted in a lactic acid host cell that, instead of producing mainly lactate with a small amount of acetoin as in cells without these genetic modifications, the modified cells produced 2,3-butanediol, ethanol, succinate, formate, lactate, and acetoin products. The amount of 2,3-butanediol produced is at least about 49 Mol % of the total of these 6 products At least about 0.4 gram of 2,3-butanediol may be produced per gram of glucose consumed.

2,3-butanediol is made from pyruvate through steps of pyruvate conversion to acetolactate, acetolactate conversion to acetoin, and acetoin conversion to 2,3-butanediol. This biosynthetic pathway is the first three steps (a, b, and i) of the pathway shown in FIG. 1, which is described further below. Activities performing the first and second conversions may be provided by endogenous host enzymes as exemplified herein, or may be provided by expression of heterologous enzymes as described further below.

Production of 2,3-butanediol may be achieved in cells that are lactic acid bacteria (LAB), due to the redirection of carbon flow from lactic acid production. LAB which may be host cells in the present disclosure include, but are not limited to, Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Oenococcus, Pediococcus, and Streptococcus.

In addition, it was determined that it is not necessary to provide an additional electron sink to balance redox equivalents to achieve the described flux from pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol. As lactate is the major end product for Lactobacillus plantarum, the NAD-dependent lactate dehydrogenases are major contributors to balancing redox equivalents. In the absence of the lactate dehydrogenases, it was expected that an additional electron sink would be needed to help balance redox. However, Applicants found that the co-production of ethanol and succinate by native enzymes was sufficient to balance redox equivalents to obtain the flux described herein, such that an additional electron sink was not needed.

Reduced Lactate Dehydrogenase Activity

Endogenous lactate dehydrogenase activity in lactic acid bacteria (LAB) converts pyruvate to lactate. LAB may have one or more genes, typically one, two or three genes, encoding lactate dehydrogenase. For example, Lactobacillus plantarum has three genes encoding lactate dehydrogenase which are named ldhL2 (protein SEQ ID NO:6, coding region SEQ ID NO:5), ldhD (protein SEQ ID NO:2, coding region SEQ ID NO:1), and ldhL1 (protein SEQ ID NO:4, coding region SEQ ID NO:3). Lactococcus lactis has one gene encoding lactate dehydrogenase which is named ldhL (protein SEQ ID NO:20, coding region SEQ ID NO:19), and Pediococcus pentosaceus has two genes named ldhD (protein SEQ ID NO:26, coding region SEQ ID NO:25) and ldhL (protein SEQ ID NO:28, coding region SEQ ID NO:27).

In the present LAB strains, lactate dehydrogenase activity is reduced so that the cells are substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity. Genetic modification is made in at least one gene encoding lactate dehydrogenase to reduce activity. When more than one lactate dehydrogenase gene is active under the growth conditions to be used, each of these active genes may be modified to reduce expression and thereby reduce or eliminate lactate dehydrogenase activity. For example, in L. plantarum ldhL1 and ldhD genes are modified. It is not necessary to modify the third gene, ldhL2, for growth in typical conditions as this gene appears to be inactive in these conditions. Typically, expression of one or more genes encoding lactate dehydrogenase is disrupted to reduce expressed enzyme activity. Examples of LAB lactate dehydrogenase genes that may be targeted for disruption are represented by the coding regions of SEQ ID NOs:1, 3, 5, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, and 33 listed in Table 1. Other target genes, such as those encoding lactate dehydrogenase proteins having at least about 80-85%, 85%-90%, 90%-95%, or at least about 98% sequence identity to the lactate dehydrogenases of SEQ ID NOs:2, 4, 6, 20, 22 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, and 34 listed in Table 1 may be identified in the literature and using bioinformatics approaches, as is well known to one of ordinary skill in the art, since lactate dehydrogenases are well known. Typically BLAST (described above) searching of publicly available databases with known lactate dehydrogenase amino acid sequences, such as those provided herein, is used to identify lactate dehydrogenases, and their encoding sequences, that may be targets for disruption to reduce lactate dehydrogenase activity. Identities are based on the Clustal W method of alignment using the default parameters of GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=0.1, and Gonnet 250 series of protein weight matrix.

Additionally, the sequences described herein or those recited in the art may be used to identify other homologs in nature in other LAB strains. For example each of the lactate dehydrogenase encoding nucleic acid fragments described herein may be used to isolate genes encoding homologous proteins. Isolation of homologous genes using sequence-dependent protocols is well known in the art. Examples of sequence-dependent protocols include, but are not limited to: 1.) methods of nucleic acid hybridization; 2.) methods of DNA and RNA amplification, as exemplified by various uses of nucleic acid amplification technologies [e.g., polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Mullis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202; ligase chain reaction (LCR), Tabor, S. et al., Proc. Acad. Sci. USA 82:1074 (1985); or strand displacement amplification (SDA), Walker, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 89:392 (1992)]; and 3.) methods of library construction and screening by complementation.

For example, genes encoding similar proteins or polypeptides to the lactate dehydrogenase encoding genes described herein could be isolated directly by using all or a portion of the instant nucleic acid fragments as DNA hybridization probes to screen libraries from any desired organism using methodology well known to those skilled in the art. Specific oligonucleotide probes based upon the disclosed nucleic acid sequences can be designed and synthesized by methods known in the art (Maniatis, supra). Moreover, the entire sequences can be used directly to synthesize DNA probes by methods known to the skilled artisan (e.g., random primers DNA labeling, nick translation or end-labeling techniques), or RNA probes using available in vitro transcription systems. In addition, specific primers can be designed and used to amplify a part of (or full-length of) the instant sequences. The resulting amplification products can be labeled directly during amplification reactions or labeled after amplification reactions, and used as probes to isolate full-length DNA fragments by hybridization under conditions of appropriate stringency.

Typically, in PCR-type amplification techniques, the primers have different sequences and are not complementary to each other. Depending on the desired test conditions, the sequences of the primers should be designed to provide for both efficient and faithful replication of the target nucleic acid. Methods of PCR primer design are common and well known in the art (Thein and Wallace, “The use of oligonucleotides as specific hybridization probes in the Diagnosis of Genetic Disorders”, in Human Genetic Diseases: A Practical Approach, K. E. Davis Ed., (1986) pp 33-50, IRL: Herndon, Va.; and Rychlik, W., In Methods in Molecular Biology, White, B. A. Ed., (1993) Vol. 15, pp 31-39, PCR Protocols: Current Methods and Applications. Humania: Totowa, N.J.).

Generally two short segments of the described sequences may be used in polymerase chain reaction protocols to amplify longer nucleic acid fragments encoding homologous genes from DNA or RNA. The polymerase chain reaction may also be performed on a library of cloned nucleic acid fragments wherein the sequence of one primer is derived from the described nucleic acid fragments, and the sequence of the other primer takes advantage of the presence of the polyadenylic acid tracts to the 3′ end of the mRNA precursor encoding microbial genes.

Alternatively, the second primer sequence may be based upon sequences derived from the cloning vector. For example, the skilled artisan can follow the RACE protocol (Frohman et al., PNAS USA 85:8998 (1988)) to generate cDNAs by using PCR to amplify copies of the region between a single point in the transcript and the 3′ or 5′ end. Primers oriented in the 3′ and 5′ directions can be designed from the instant sequences. Using commercially available 3′ RACE or 5′ RACE systems (e.g., BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.), specific 3′ or 5′ cDNA fragments can be isolated (Ohara et al., PNAS USA 86:5673 (1989); Loh et al., Science 243:217 (1989)).

Alternatively, the described lactate dehydrogenase encoding sequences may be employed as hybridization reagents for the identification of homologs. The basic components of a nucleic acid hybridization test include a probe, a sample suspected of containing the gene or gene fragment of interest, and a specific hybridization method. Probes are typically single-stranded nucleic acid sequences that are complementary to the nucleic acid sequences to be detected. Probes are “hybridizable” to the nucleic acid sequence to be detected. The probe length can vary from 5 bases to tens of thousands of bases, and will depend upon the specific test to be done. Typically a probe length of about 15 bases to about 30 bases is suitable. Only part of the probe molecule need be complementary to the nucleic acid sequence to be detected. In addition, the complementarity between the probe and the target sequence need not be perfect. Hybridization does occur between imperfectly complementary molecules with the result that a certain fraction of the bases in the hybridized region are not paired with the proper complementary base.

Hybridization methods are well defined. Typically the probe and sample must be mixed under conditions that will permit nucleic acid hybridization. This involves contacting the probe and sample in the presence of an inorganic or organic salt under the proper concentration and temperature conditions. The probe and sample nucleic acids must be in contact for a long enough time that any possible hybridization between the probe and sample nucleic acid may occur. The concentration of probe or target in the mixture will determine the time necessary for hybridization to occur. The higher the probe or target concentration, the shorter the hybridization incubation time needed. Optionally, a chaotropic agent may be added. The chaotropic agent stabilizes nucleic acids by inhibiting nuclease activity. Furthermore, the chaotropic agent allows sensitive and stringent hybridization of short oligonucleotide probes at room temperature (Van Ness and Chen, Nucl. Acids Res. 19:5143-5151 (1991)). Suitable chaotropic agents include guanidinium chloride, guanidinium thiocyanate, sodium thiocyanate, lithium tetrachloroacetate, sodium perchlorate, rubidium tetrachloroacetate, potassium iodide and cesium trifluoroacetate, among others. Typically, the chaotropic agent will be present at a final concentration of about 3 M. If desired, one can add formamide to the hybridization mixture, typically 30-50% (v/v).

Various hybridization solutions can be employed. Typically, these comprise from about 20 to 60% volume, preferably 30%, of a polar organic solvent. A common hybridization solution employs about 30-50% v/v formamide, about 0.15 to 1 M sodium chloride, about 0.05 to 0.1 M buffers (e.g., sodium citrate, Tris-HCl, PIPES or HEPES (pH range about 6-9)), about 0.05 to 0.2% detergent (e.g., sodium dodecylsulfate), or between 0.5-20 mM EDTA, FICOLL (Pharmacia Inc.) (about 300-500 kdal), polyvinylpyrrolidone (about 250-500 kdal) and serum albumin. Also included in the typical hybridization solution will be unlabeled carrier nucleic acids from about 0.1 to 5 mg/mL, fragmented nucleic DNA (e.g., calf thymus or salmon sperm DNA, or yeast RNA), and optionally from about 0.5 to 2% wt/vol glycine. Other additives may also be included, such as volume exclusion agents that include a variety of polar water-soluble or swellable agents (e.g., polyethylene glycol), anionic polymers (e.g., polyacrylate or polymethylacrylate) and anionic saccharidic polymers (e.g., dextran sulfate).

Nucleic acid hybridization is adaptable to a variety of assay formats. One of the most suitable is the sandwich assay format. The sandwich assay is particularly adaptable to hybridization under non-denaturing conditions. A primary component of a sandwich-type assay is a solid support. The solid support has adsorbed to it or covalently coupled to it immobilized nucleic acid probe that is unlabeled and complementary to one portion of the sequence.

In the present LAB strains, at least one modification is engineered that results in cells substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity. This may be accomplished by eliminating expression of at least one endogenous gene encoding lactate dehydrogenase. Any genetic modification method known by one skilled in the art for reducing the expression of a protein may be used to alter lactate dehydrogenase expression. Methods include, but are not limited to, deletion of the entire or a portion of the lactate dehydrogenase encoding gene, inserting a DNA fragment into the lactate dehydrogenase encoding gene (in either the promoter or coding region) so that the encoded protein cannot be expressed, introducing a mutation into the lactate dehydrogenase coding region which adds a stop codon or frame shift such that a functional protein is not expressed, and introducing one or more mutations into the lactate dehydrogenase coding region to alter amino acids so that a non-functional protein is expressed. In addition lactate dehydrogenase expression may be blocked by expression of an antisense RNA or an interfering RNA, and constructs may be introduced that result in cosuppression. All of these methods may be readily practiced by one skilled in the art making use of the known lactate dehydrogenase encoding sequences such as those of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 3, 5, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, and 33.

For some methods genomic DNA sequences that surround a lactate dehydrogenase encoding sequence are useful, such as for homologous recombination-based methods. These sequences may be available from genome sequencing projects such as for Lactobacillus plantarum, which is available through the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, with Genbank™ identification gi|28376974|ref|NC_(—)004567.1|[28376974]. Adjacent genomic DNA sequences may also be obtained by sequencing outward from a lactate dehydrogenase coding sequence using primers within the coding sequence, as well known to one skilled in the art.

A particularly suitable method for creating a genetically modified LAB strain substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity, as exemplified herein in Example 1, is using homologous recombination mediated by lactate dehydrogenase coding region flanking DNA sequences to delete the entire gene. The flanking sequences are cloned adjacent to each other so that a double crossover event using these flanking sequences deletes the lactate dehydrogenase coding region.

Expression of Heterologous Butanediol Dehydrogenase Activity

Lactic acid bacteria may naturally have a low amount of 2,3-butanediol synthesis, which may vary depending on the growth conditions. In the present invention, expression of heterologous butanediol dehydrogenase activity provides a pathway to 2,3-butanediol synthesis that successfully competes with other pathways that use pyruvate as an initial substrate, in the absence of lactate dehydrogenase activity. Heterologous butanediol dehydrogenase activity is expressed in a LAB cell that is substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity as described above.

Butanediol dehydrogenase enzymes are well-known and are described in the definitions above. The skilled person will appreciate that polypeptides having butanediol dehydrogenase activity isolated from a variety of sources will be useful in the present invention independent of sequence homology. Some examples of suitable butanediol dehydrogenase enzymes include, but are not limited to, those from Klebsiella pneumoniae (DNA: SEQ ID NO:12, protein: SEQ ID NO:13), Bacillus cereus (DNA: SEQ ID NO:63, protein: SEQ ID NO:64), and Lactococcus lactis (DNA: SEQ ID NO:65, protein: SEQ ID NO:66).

Because butanediol dehydrogenases are well known, and because of the prevalence of genomic sequencing, suitable butanediol dehydrogenases may be readily identified by one skilled in the art on the basis of sequence similarity using bioinformatics approaches. Typically BLAST (described above) searching of publicly available databases with known butanediol dehydrogenase amino acid sequences, such as those provided herein, is used to identify butanediol dehydrogenases, and their encoding sequences, that may be used in the present strains.

Examples of genes encoding butanediol dehydrogenase, which may be used to provide heterologous expression of butanediol dehydrogenase activity in the present LAB, have SEQ ID NOs: 12, 63, and 64 and are listed in Table 2. Additional butanediol dehydrogenase encoding genes that may be used for heterologous expression in LAB may be identified in the literature and in bioinformatics databases well known to the skilled person.

Encoding sequences for butanediol dehydrogenase proteins having amino acid sequence identities of at least about 70-75%, 75%-80%, 80-85%, 85%-90%, 90%-95%, or 98% sequence identity to any of the butanediol dehydrogenase proteins of SEQ ID NOs:13, 64 and 66 listed in Table 2 may be expressed in the present strains. Identities are based on the Clustal W method of alignment using the default parameters of GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=0.1, and Gonnet 250 series of protein weight matrix.

Additionally, the sequences encoding butanediol dehydrogenases described herein or those recited in the art may be used to identify other homologs in nature. For example each of the butanediol dehydrogenase encoding nucleic acid fragments described herein may be used to isolate genes encoding homologous proteins. Isolation of homologous genes using sequence-dependent protocols is well known in the art, as described above for lactate dehydrogenase encoding nucleic acid fragments.

Expression of heterologous butanediol dehydrogenase is achieved by transforming suitable host cells with a sequence encoding a butanediol dehydrogenase protein. Typically the coding sequence is part of a chimeric gene used for transformation, which includes a promoter operably linked to the coding sequence as well as a ribosome binding site and a termination control region. A chimeric gene is heterologous even if it includes the coding sequence for a butanediol dehydrorgenase from the host cell for transformation, if the coding sequence is combined with regulatory sequences that are not native to the natural gene encoding butanediol dehydrogenase.

Codons may be optimized for expression based on codon usage in the selected host, as is known to one skilled in the art. Vectors useful for the transformation of a variety of host cells are common and described in the literature. Typically the vector contains a selectable marker and sequences allowing autonomous replication or chromosomal integration in the desired host. In addition, suitable vectors may comprise a promoter region which harbors transcriptional initiation controls and a transcriptional termination control region, between which a coding region DNA fragment may be inserted, to provide expression of the inserted coding region. Both control regions may be derived from genes homologous to the transformed host cell, although it is to be understood that such control regions may also be derived from genes that are not native to the specific species chosen as a production host.

Initiation control regions or promoters, which are useful to drive expression of a butanediol dehydrogenase coding region in LAB are familiar to those skilled in the art. Some examples include the amy, apr, and npr promoters; nisA promoter (useful for expression Gram-positive bacteria (Eichenbaum et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64(8):2763-2769 (1998)); and the synthetic P11 promoter (useful for expression in Lactobacillus plantarum, Rud et al., Microbiology 152:1011-1019 (2006)). In addition, the ldhL1 and fabZ1 promoters of L plantarum are useful for expression of chimeric genes in LAB. The fabZ1 promoter directs transcription of an operon with the first gene, fabZ1, encoding (3R)-hydroxymyristoyl-[acyl carrier protein] dehydratase.

Termination control regions may also be derived from various genes, typically from genes native to the preferred hosts. Optionally, a termination site may be unnecessary, however, it is most preferred if included.

Vectors useful in LAB include vectors having two origins of replication and two selectable markers which allow for replication and selection in both Escherichia coli and LAB. An example is pFP996, the sequence of which is provided as SEQ ID NO:35, which is useful in L. plantarum and other LAB. Many plasmids and vectors used in the transformation of Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus may be used generally for LAB. Non-limiting examples of suitable vectors include pAMβ1 and derivatives thereof (Renault et al., Gene 183:175-182 (1996); and O'Sullivan et al., Gene 137:227-231 (1993)); pMBB1 and pHW800, a derivative of pMBB1 (Wyckoff et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:1481-1486 (1996)); pMG1, a conjugative plasmid (Tanimoto et al., J. Bacteriol. 184:5800-5804 (2002)); pNZ9520 (Kleerebezem et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63:4581-4584 (1997)); pAM401 (Fujimoto et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67:1262-1267 (2001)); and pAT392 (Arthur et al., Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 38:1899-1903 (1994)). Several plasmids from Lactobacillus plantarum have also been reported (e.g., van Kranenburg R, Golic N, Bongers R, Leer R J, de Vos W M, Siezen R J, Kleerebezem M. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2005 March; 71(3): 1223-1230).

Vectors may be introduced into a host cell using methods known in the art, such as electroporation (Cruz-Rodz et al. Molecular Genetics and Genomics 224:1252-154 (1990), Bringel, et al. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 33: 664-670 (1990), Alegre et al., FEMS Microbiology letters 241:73-77 (2004)), and conjugation (Shrago et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 52:574-576 (1986)). A chimeric butanediol dehydrogenase gene can also be integrated into the chromosome of LAB using integration vectors (Hols et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 60:1401-1403 (1990), Jang et al., Micro. Lett. 24:191-195 (2003)).

Reducing Pyruvate Formate Lyase Activity

In addition to the modifications described above with respect to lactate dehydrogenase and butanediol dehydrogenase in the present cells, optionally these cells may further have at least one modification that reduces endogenous pyruvate formate lyase activity. Pyruvate formate lyase activity converts pyruvate to formate. Activity of pyruvate formate lyase in the cell may be reduced or eliminated. Preferably the activity is eliminated.

For expression of pyruvate formate lyase activity a gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase (pfl) and a gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase activating enzyme are required. To reduce pyruvate formate lyase activity a modification may be made in either or both of these genes. There may be one or more genes encoding each of pyruvate formate lyase and pyruvate formate lyase activating enzyme in a particular strain of LAB. For example, Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 contains two pfl genes (pflB1: coding region SEQ ID NO:69, protein SEQ ID NO:70; and pflB2: coding region SEQ ID NO:71, protein SEQ ID NO:72) and two pfl activating enzyme genes (pflA1: coding region SEQ ID NO:73, protein SEQ ID NO:74; and pflA2: coding region SEQ ID NO:75, protein SEQ ID NO:76), Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 only contains one pfl gene (pflB2) and one pfl activating enzyme gene (pflA2). In one embodiment, expression is reduced for all pfl encoding genes that are active in a production host cell under the desired production conditions and/or for all pfl activating enzyme encoding genes that are active in a production host cell under the desired production conditions.

Examples of pfl genes that may be modified to reduce pyruvate formate lyase activity are represented by the coding regions of SEQ ID NOs: 39, 41, 47, and 51. Other target genes for modification include those encoding pyruvate formate lyase proteins having SEQ ID NOs:40, 42, 48, and 52 and those encoding a protein having at least about 80-85%, 85%-90%, 90%-95%, or at least about 96%, 97%, 98%, or 99% sequence identity to one of these proteins, which may be identified in the literature and using bioinformatics approaches, as is well known to the skilled person as described above for lactate dehydrogenase proteins. Additionally, the sequences described herein or those recited in the art may be used to identify other homologs in nature as described above.

Examples of pfl activating enzyme genes that may be modified to reduce pyruvate formate lyase activity are represented by the coding regions of SEQ ID NOs:73, 75, 79, and 83. Other target genes for modification include those encoding pyruvate formate lyase activating enzyme proteins having SEQ ID NOs:74, 76, 80, 84 and those encoding a protein having at least about 80-85%, 85%-90%, 90%-95%, or at least about 96%, 97%, 98%, or 99% sequence identity to one of these proteins, which may be identified in the literature and using bioinformatics approaches, as is well known to the skilled person as described above for lactate dehydrogenase proteins. Additionally, the sequences described herein or those recited in the art may be used to identify other homologs in nature as described above.

Any genetic modification method known by one skilled in the art for reducing the expression of a protein may be used to alter pyruvate formate lyase activity. Methods to reduce or eliminate expression of the pyruvate formate lyase and/or pyruvate formate lyase activating enzyme genes include, but are not limited to, deletion of the entire or a portion of the gene, inserting a DNA fragment into the gene (in either the promoter or coding region) so that the encoded protein cannot be expressed or has reduced expression, introducing a mutation into the coding region which adds a stop codon or frame shift such that a functional protein is not expressed, and introducing one or more mutations into the coding region to alter amino acids so that a non-functional or reduced-functional protein is expressed. In addition expression from the target gene may be partially or substantially blocked by expression of an antisense RNA or an interfering RNA, and constructs may be introduced that result in cosuppression.

Product Biosynthesis in LAB Engineered for High Flux of Pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol

2,3-butanediol and any product that has 2,3-butanediol as a pathway intermediate may be produced with greater effectiveness (such as greater rate, titer, yield, and/or efficiency thereof) in a LAB cell disclosed herein having high flux of pyruvate to 2,3-butanediol. Such products include, but are not limited to, 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone, and 2-butanol.

A biosynthetic pathway for synthesis of 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone and 2-butanol is disclosed in US Patent Pub No. US20070292927A1, which is herein incorporated by reference. A diagram of the disclosed 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone and 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway is provided in FIG. 1 therein. 2,3-butanediol is the product of the first three steps, which are listed below. 2-Butanone is the product made when the last depicted step of converting 2-butanone to 2-butanol is omitted. Production of 2-butanone or 2-butanol in a strain disclosed herein benefits from increased production of 2,3-butanediol. As described in US Patent Pub No. US20070292927A1, steps in the biosynthetic pathway include conversion of:

pyruvate to acetolactate (see FIG. 1, step a therein) as catalyzed for example by acetolactate synthase (ALS) known by the EC number 2.2.1.69;

acetolactate to acetoin (see FIG. 1, step b therein) as catalyzed for example by acetolactate decarboxylase;

acetoin to 2,3-butanediol (see FIG. 2, step i therein) as catalyzed for example by butanediol dehydrogenase;

2,3-butanediol to 2-butanone (see FIG. 2, step j therein) as catalyzed for example by diol dehydratase or glycerol dehydratase; and

2-butanone to 2-butanol (see FIG. 2, step f therein) as catalyzed for example by butanol dehydrogenase.

Genes that may be used to engineer expression of these enzymes are described in US Patent Pub No. 20070292927A1. Alternatively endogenous enzymes in LAB may perform some pathway steps, such as acetolactate synthase and acetolactate decarboxylase. The use in this pathway of the butanediol dehydratase from Roseburia inulinivorans, RdhtA, (protein SEQ ID NO:16, coding region SEQ ID NO:15) is disclosed in US Patent Pub No. US 20090155870A1. This enzyme is used in conjunction with the butanediol dehydratase reactivase from Roseburia inulinivorans, RdhtB, (protein SEQ ID NO:18, coding region SEQ ID NO:17). This butanediol dehydratase is desired in many hosts because it does not require coenzyme B₁₂.

Some representative ALS enzymes that may be used include those encoded by alsS of Bacillus and budB of Klebsiella (Gollop et al., J. Bacteriol. 172(6):3444-3449 (1990); Holtzclaw et al., J. Bacteriol. 121(3):917-922 (1975)). ALS from Bacillus subtilis (DNA: SEQ ID NO:85; protein: SEQ ID NO:86), from Klebsiella pneumoniae (DNA: SEQ ID NO:88; protein: SEQ ID NO:89), and from Lactococcus lactis (DNA: SEQ ID NO:90; protein: SEQ ID NO:91) are provided herein. Additional Als coding regions and encoded proteins that may be used include those from Staphylococcus aureus (DNA: SEQ ID NO:92; protein: SEQ ID NO:93), Listeria monocytogenes (DNA: SEQ ID NO:94; protein: SEQ ID NO:95), Streptococcus mutans (DNA: SEQ ID NO:96; protein: SEQ ID NO:97), Streptococcus thermophilus (DNA: SEQ ID NO:98; protein: SEQ ID NO:99), Vibrio angustum (DNA: SEQ ID NO:100; protein: SEQ ID NO:101), and Bacillus cereus (DNA: SEQ ID NO:102; protein: SEQ ID NO:103). Any Als gene that encodes an acetolactate synthase having at least about 80-85%, 85%-90%, 90%-95%, or at least about 96%, 97%, or 98% sequence identity to any one of those with SEQ ID NOs:86, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, or 103 that converts pyruvate to acetolactate may be used. Identities are based on the Clustal W method of alignment using the default parameters of GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=0.1, and Gonnet 250 series of protein weight matrix.

Additionally, U.S. Patent Appl No. 12/477,942 provides a phylogenetic tree depicting acetolactate synthases that are the 100 closest neighbors of the B. subtilis AlsS sequence, any of which may be used. Additional Als sequences that may be used in the present strains may be identified in the literature and in bioinformatics databases as is well known to the skilled person. Identification of coding and/or protein sequences using bioinformatics is typically through BLAST (described above) searching of publicly available databases with known Als encoding sequences or encoded amino acid sequences, such as those provided herein. Identities are based on the Clustal W method of alignment as specified above. Additionally, the sequences listed herein or those recited in the art may be used to identify other homologs in nature as described above.

Useful for the last step of converting 2-butanone to 2-butanol is a new butanol dehydrogenase isolated from an environmental isolate of a bacterium identified as Achromobacter xylosoxidans that is disclosed in U.S. Patent Appl No. 12/430,356 (DNA: SEQ ID NO:9, protein SEQ ID NO:10).

Chimeric genes that include the coding regions for enzymes of the pathway, or desired portion of the pathway, may be constructed and used in vectors as described above for butanediol dehydrogenase, and as disclosed in US 20070292927A1, to engineer 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanone or 2-butanol producing cells.

Growth for Production

Recombinant LAB cells disclosed herein may be used for fermentation production of 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone. The recombinant cells are grown in fermentation media which contains suitable carbon substrates. Suitable substrates may include but are not limited to monosaccharides such as glucose and fructose, oligosaccharides such as lactose or sucrose, polysaccharides such as starch or cellulose or mixtures thereof and unpurified mixtures from renewable feedstocks such as cheese whey permeate, cornsteep liquor, sugar beet molasses, and barley malt.

Although it is contemplated that all of the above mentioned carbon substrates and mixtures thereof are suitable in the present invention, preferred carbon substrates are glucose, fructose, and sucrose, or mixtures of monosaccharides including C5 sugars such as xylose and arabinose. Sucrose may be derived from renewable sugar sources such as sugar cane, sugar beets, cassaya, sweet sorghum, and mixtures thereof. Glucose and dextrose may be derived from renewable grain sources through saccharification of starch based feedstocks including grains such as corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, and mixtures thereof. In addition, fermentable sugars may be derived from renewable cellulosic or lignocellulosic biomass through processes of pretreatment and saccharification, as described, for example, in U.S. Patent Pub No. 2007/0031918A1, which is herein incorporated by reference. Biomass refers to any cellulosic or lignocellulosic material and includes materials comprising cellulose, and optionally further comprising hemicellulose, lignin, starch, oligosaccharides and/or monosaccharides. Biomass may also comprise additional components, such as protein and/or lipid. Biomass may be derived from a single source, or biomass can comprise a mixture derived from more than one source; for example, biomass may comprise a mixture of corn cobs and corn stover, or a mixture of grass and leaves. Biomass includes, but is not limited to, bioenergy crops, agricultural residues, municipal solid waste, industrial solid waste, sludge from paper manufacture, yard waste, wood and forestry waste. Examples of biomass include, but are not limited to, corn grain, corn cobs, crop residues such as corn husks, corn stover, grasses, wheat, wheat straw, barley, barley straw, hay, rice straw, switchgrass, waste paper, sugar cane bagasse, sorghum, soy, components obtained from milling of grains, trees, branches, roots, leaves, wood chips, sawdust, shrubs and bushes, vegetables, fruits, flowers, animal manure, and mixtures thereof.

In addition to an appropriate carbon source, fermentation media must contain suitable minerals, salts, cofactors, buffers and other components, known to those skilled in the art, suitable for the growth of the cultures and promotion of the enzymatic pathway necessary for 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone production. Typically cells are grown at a temperature in the range of about 25° C. to about 40° C. in an appropriate medium. Suitable growth media are common commercially prepared media such as Bacto Lactobacilli MRS broth or Agar (Difco), Luria Bertani (LB) broth, Sabouraud Dextrose (SD) broth or Yeast Medium (YM) broth. Other defined or synthetic growth media may also be used, and the appropriate medium for growth of the particular bacterial strain will be known by one skilled in the art of microbiology or fermentation science. The use of agents known to modulate catabolite repression directly or indirectly, e.g., cyclic adenosine 2′:3′-monophosphate, may also be incorporated into the fermentation medium.

Suitable pH ranges for the fermentation are between pH 5.0 to pH 9.0, where pH 6.0 to pH 8.0 is preferred as the initial condition.

Fermentations may be performed under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, where anaerobic or microaerobic conditions are preferred.

2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone may be produced using a batch method of fermentation. A classical batch fermentation is a closed system where the composition of the medium is set at the beginning of the fermentation and not subject to artificial alterations during the fermentation. A variation on the standard batch system is the fed-batch system. Fed-batch fermentation processes are also suitable in the present invention and comprise a typical batch system with the exception that the substrate is added in increments as the fermentation progresses. Fed-batch systems are useful when catabolite repression is apt to inhibit the metabolism of the cells and where it is desirable to have limited amounts of substrate in the media. Batch and fed-batch fermentations are common and well known in the art and examples may be found in Thomas D. Brock in Biotechnology: A Textbook of Industrial Microbiology, Second

Edition (1989) Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Mass., or Deshpande, Mukund V., Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol., 36:227, (1992), herein incorporated by reference.

2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone may also be produced using continuous fermentation methods. Continuous fermentation is an open system where a defined fermentation medium is added continuously to a bioreactor and an equal amount of conditioned media is removed simultaneously for processing. Continuous fermentation generally maintains the cultures at a constant high density where cells are primarily in log phase growth. Continuous fermentation allows for the modulation of one factor or any number of factors that affect cell growth or end product concentration. Methods of modulating nutrients and growth factors for continuous fermentation processes as well as techniques for maximizing the rate of product formation are well known in the art of industrial microbiology and a variety of methods are detailed by Brock, supra.

It is contemplated that the production of 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone may be practiced using either batch, fed-batch or continuous processes and that any known mode of fermentation would be suitable. Additionally, it is contemplated that cells may be immobilized on a substrate as whole cell catalysts and subjected to fermentation conditions for 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone production.

Methods for 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone Isolation from the Fermentation Medium

Bioproduced 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone may be isolated from the fermentation medium using methods known in the art for ABE fermentations (see for example, Durre, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 49:639-648 (1998), Groot et al., Process. Biochem. 27:61-75 (1992), and references therein). For example, solids may be removed from the fermentation medium by centrifugation, filtration, decantation, or the like. Then, the butanol 2,3-butanediol, 2-butanol or 2-butanone may be isolated from the fermentation medium using methods such as distillation, azeotropic distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, adsorption, gas stripping, membrane evaporation, or pervaporation.

EXAMPLES

The present invention is further defined in the following Examples. It should be understood that these Examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only. From the above discussion and these Examples, one skilled in the art can ascertain the essential characteristics of this invention, and without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, can make various changes and modifications of the invention to adapt it to various uses and conditions.

The meaning of abbreviations used is as follows: “min” means minute(s), “h” means hour(s), “sec’ means second(s), “μl” means microliter(s), “ml” means milliliter(s), “L” means liter(s), “nm” means nanometer(s), “mm” means millimeter(s), “cm” means centimeter(s), “μm” means micrometer(s), “mM” means millimolar, “M” means molar, “mmol” means millimole(s), “μmole” means micromole(s), “g” means gram(s), “μg” means microgram(s), “mg” means milligram(s), “rpm” means revolutions per minute, “w/v” means weight/volume, “OD” means optical density, and “OD600” means optical density measured at a wavelength of 600 nm.

General Methods:

Standard recombinant DNA and molecular cloning techniques used in the Examples are well known in the art and are described by Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989, by T. J. Silhavy, M. L. Bennan, and L. W. Enquist, Experiments with Gene Fusions, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1984, and by Ausubel, F. M. et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Greene Publishing Assoc. and Wiley-Interscience, N.Y., 1987. Additional methods used in the Examples are described in manuals including Advanced Bacterial Genetics (Davis, Roth and Botstein, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1980), Experiments with Gene Fusions (Silhavy, Berman and Enquist, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1984), Experiments in Molecular Genetics (Miller, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1972) Experimental Techniques in Bacterial Genetics (Maloy, in Jones and Bartlett, 1990), and A Short Course in Bacterial Genetics (Miller, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1992).

Example 1 Construction of the Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 ΔldhDΔldhL1 Strain PNP0001

The purpose of this example is to describe the construction of a Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 strain that is deleted for the two genes that encode the major lactate dehydrogenases. The major end product of fermentation in Lactobacillus plantarum is lactic acid. Pyruvate is converted to lactate by the action of two lactate dehydrogenases encoded by the ldhD and ldhL1 genes. A double deletion of ldhD and ldhL1 was made in Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 (ATCC strain #PTA-7727).

Gene knockouts were constructed using a process based on a two-step homologous recombination procedure to yield unmarked gene deletions (Ferain et al., 1994, J. Bact. 176:596). The procedure utilized a shuttle vector, pFP996 (SEQ ID NO:35). pFP996 is a shuttle vector for gram-positive bacteria. It can replicate in both E. coli and gram-positive bacteria. It contains the origins of replication from pBR322 (nucleotides #2628 to 5323) and pE194 (nucleotides #43 to 2627). pE194 is a small plasmid isolated originally from a gram positive bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus (Horinouchi and Weisblum J. Bacteriol. (1982) 150(2):804-814). In pFP996, the multiple cloning sites (nucleotides #1 to 50) contain restriction sites for EcoRI, BglII, XhoI, SmaI, ClaI, KpnI, and HindIII. There are two antibiotic resistance markers; one is for resistance to ampicillin and the other for resistance to erythromycin. For selection purposes, ampicillin was used for transformation in E. coli and erythromycin was used for selection in L. plantarum.

Two segments of DNA, each containing 900 to 1200 by of sequence either upstream or downstream of the intended deletion, were cloned into the plasmid to provide the regions of homology for the two genetic cross-overs. Cells were grown for an extended number of generations (30-50) to allow for the cross-over events to occur. The initial cross-over (single cross-over) integrated the plasmid into the chromosome by homologous recombination through one of the two homology regions on the plasmid. The second cross-over (double cross-over) event yielded either the wild-type sequence or the intended gene deletion. A cross-over between the sequences that led to the initial integration event would yield the wild-type sequence, while a cross-over between the other regions of homology would yield the desired deletion. The second cross-over event was screened for by antibiotic sensitivity. Single and double cross-over events were analyzed by PCR and DNA sequencing.

All restriction enzymes, DNA modifying enzymes and Phusion High-Fidelity PCR Master Mix were purchased from NEB Inc. (Ipswich, Ma). PCR SuperMix and Platinum PCR SuperMix High Fidelity were purchased from Invitrogen Corp (Carlsbad, Calif.). DNA fragments were gel purified using Zymoclean™ Gel DNA Recovery Kit (Zymo Research Corp, Orange, Calif.) or Qiaquick PCR Purification Kit (Qiagen Inc., Valencia, Calif.). Plasmid DNA was prepared with QIAprep Spin Miniprep Kit (Qiagen Inc., Valencia, Calif.). Oligoucleotides were synthesized by Sigma-Genosys (Woodlands, Tex.) or Invitrogen Corp (Carlsbad, Calif.). L. plantarum PN0512 genomic DNA was prepared with MasterPure DNA Purification Kit (Epicentre, Madison, Wis.).

Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 was transformed by the following procedure: 5 ml of Lactobacilli MRS medium (Accumedia, Neogen Corporation, Lansing, Mich.) containing 1% glycine (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.) was inoculated with PN0512 cells and grown overnight at 30° C. 100 ml MRS medium with 1% glycine was inoculated with overnight culture to an OD600 of 0.1 and grown to an OD600 of 0.7 at 30° C. Cells were harvested at 3700×g for 8 min at 4° C., washed with 100 ml cold 1 mM MgCl₂ (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.), centrifuged at 3700×g for 8 min at 4° C., washed with 100 ml cold 30% PEG-1000 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.), recentrifuged at 3700×g for 20 min at 4° C., then resuspended in 1 ml cold 30% PEG-1000. 60 μl cells were mixed with ±100 ng plasmid DNA in a cold 1 mm gap electroporation cuvette and electroporated in a BioRad Gene Pulser (Hercules, Calif.) at 1.7 kV, 25 μF, and 400Ω. Cells were resuspended in 1 ml MRS medium containing 500 mM sucrose (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.) and 100 mM MgCl₂, incubated at 30° C. for 2 hrs, plated on MRS medium plates containing 1 or 2 μg/ml of erythromycin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.), then placed in an anaerobic box containing a Pack-Anaero sachet (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co., Tokyo, Japan) and incubated at 30° C.

ΔldhD

The knockout cassette to delete the ldhD gene was created by amplifying from PN0512 genomic DNA an upstream flanking region with primers Top D F1 (SEQ ID NO:39) containing an EcoRI site and Top D R1 (SEQ ID NO:40). The downstream homology region including part of the coding sequence of ldhD was amplified with primers Bot D F2 (SEQ ID NO:41) and Bot D R2 (SEQ ID NO:42) containing an XhoI site. The two homology regions were joined by PCR SOE as follows. The 0.9 kbp upstream and downstream PCR products were gel-purified. The PCR products were mixed in equal amounts in a PCR reaction and re-amplified with primers Top D F1 and Bot D R2. The final 1.8 kbp PCR product was gel-purified and TOPO cloned into pCR4BluntII-TOPO (Invitrogen) to create vector pCRBluntII::ldhD. To create the integration vector carrying the internal deletion of the ldhD gene, pFP996 was digested with EcoRI and XhoI and the 5311-bp fragment gel-purified. Vector pCRBluntII::ldhD was digested with EcoRI and XhoI and the 1.8 kbp fragment gel-purified. The ldhD knockout cassette and vector were ligated using T4 DNA ligase, resulting in vector pFP996::ldhD ko.

Electrocompetent Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 cells were prepared, transformed with pFP996::ldhD ko, and plated on MRS containing 1 μg/ml of erythromycin. To obtain the single-crossover event (sco), transformants were passaged for approximately 50 generations in MRS medium at 37° C. After growth, aliquots were plated for single colonies on MRS containing 1 μg/ml of erythromycin. The erythromycin-resistant colonies were screened by PCR amplification with primers ldhD Seq F1 (SEQ ID NO:43) and D check R (SEQ ID NO:44) to distinguish between wild-type and clones carrying the sco event. To obtain clones with a double crossover, the sco strains were passaged for approximately 30 generations in MRS medium with 20 mM D, L-lactate (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.) at 37° C. and then plated for single colonies on MRS with lactate. Colonies were picked and patched onto MRS with lactate and MRS with lactate containing 1 μg/ml of erythromycin to find colonies sensitive to erythromycin. Sensitive colonies were screened by PCR amplification using primer D check R (SEQ ID NO:44) and D check F3 (SEQ ID NO:45). Wild-type colonies gave a 3.2 kbp product and deletion clones, called PN0512ΔldhD, gave a 2.3 kbp PCR product.

ΔldhDΔldhL1

A deletion of the ldhL1 gene was made in the PN0512ΔldhD strain background in order to make a double ΔldhL1ΔldhD deletion strain. The knockout cassette to delete the ldhL1 gene was amplified from PN0512 genomic DNA. The ldhL1 left homologous arm was amplified using primers oBP31 (SEQ ID NO:46) containing a BglII restriction site and oBP32 (SEQ ID NO:47) containing an XhoI restriction site. The ldhL1 right homologous arm was amplified using primers oBP33 (SEQ ID NO:48) containing an XhoI restriction site and oBP34 (SEQ ID NO:49) containing an XmaI restriction site. The ldhL1 left homologous arm was cloned into the BglII/XhoI sites and the ldhL1 right homologous arm was cloned into the XhoI/XmaI sites of pFP996pyrFΔerm, a derivative of pFP996. pFP996pyrFΔerm contains the pyrF sequence (SEQ ID NO:7) encoding orotidine-5′-phosphate decarboxylase from Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 in place of the erythromycin coding region in pFP996. The plasmid-borne pyrF gene, in conjunction with the chemical 5-fluoroorotic acid in a ΔpyrF strain, can be used as an effective counter-selection method in order to isolate the second homologous crossover. The XmaI fragment containing the ldhL1 homologous arms was isolated following XmaI digestion and cloned into the XmaI restriction site of pFP996, yielding a 900 by left homologous region and a 1200 by right homologous region resulting in vector pFP996-ldhL1-arms.

PN0512ΔldhD was transformed with pFP996-ldhL1-arms and grown at 30° C. in Lactobacilli MRS medium with lactate (20 mM) and erythromycin (1 μg/ml) for approximately 10 generations. Transformants were then grown under non-selective conditions at 37° C. for about 50 generations by serial inoculations in MRS+lactate before cultures were plated on MRS containing lactate and erythromycin (1 μg/ml). Isolates were screened by colony PCR for a single crossover using chromosomal specific primer oBP49 (SEQ ID NO:53) and plasmid specific primer oBP42 (SEQ ID NO:54). Single crossover integrants were grown at 37° C. for approximately 40 generations by serial inoculations under non-selective conditions in MRS with lactate before cultures were plated on MRS medium with lactate. Isolates were patched to MRS with lactate plates, grown at 37° C., and then patched onto MRS plates with lactate and erythromycin (1 μg/ml). Erythromycin sensitive isolates were screened by colony PCR for the presence of a wild-type or deletion second crossover using chromosomal specific primers oBP49 (SEQ ID NO:53) and oBP56 (SEQ ID NO:55). A wild-type sequence yielded a 3505 by product and a deletion sequence yielded a 2545 by product. The deletions were confirmed by sequencing the PCR product and absence of plasmid was tested by colony PCR with primers oBP42 (SEQ ID NO:54) and oBP57 (SEQ ID NO:58).

The Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 double ldhDldhL1 deletion strain was designated PNP0001. The ΔldhD deletion included 83 by upstream of where the ldhD start codon was through amino acid 279 of 332. The ΔldhL1 deletion included the fMet through the final amino acid.

Example 2 Product Analysis of a Lactobacillus plantarum Strain Deleted for the Two Lactate Dehydrogenases, LdhD and LdhL1

The purpose of this example is to demonstrate the products produced by the Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 double ldhDldhL1 deletion strain compared to the wild-type strain.

Strains PN0512 (wild-type) and PNP0001 (ΔldhDΔldhL1) were grown in rich medium, Lactobacilli MRS medium (Accumedia, Neogen Corporation, Lansing, Mich.), at 30° C. without shaking under anaerobic conditions in an anaerobic chamber (Coy Laboratories Inc., Grass Lake, Mich.). Both cultures were grown to a similar OD600 about 8.5. PNP0001 grew at a rate that was approximately 2.5 times slower than the wild-type PN0512. In order to reach a similar OD600, strain PN0512 was grown for 16 hours and strain PNP0001 was grown for 41 hours. Cultures were centrifuged at 3700×g for 10 minutes at 4° C. and culture supernatants were filtered through a 0.2 μm filter (Pall Life Sciences, Ann Arbor, Mich.). The filtered supernatants were analyzed by HPLC with column Shodex SUGAR SH1011 (Showa Denko K.K., Kawasaki, Japan) and refractive index detection for levels of glucose, citrate, acetate, lactate, acetoin, ethanol, succinate, and formate.

Results in FIG. 2 show the consumption of the medium constituents and the products that were formed. 71% of the 114 mM glucose was consumed in the PN0512 culture and 158 mM lactic acid was produced. Significant amounts of other products were not detected. 99% of the glucose, as well as 100% of the 12 mM citrate and 76% of the 70 mM acetate was consumed in the PNP0001 culture. PNP0001 produced only 1 mM lactate. Instead, the main products were acetoin (102 mM) and ethanol (93 mM), along with succinate (28 mM) and formate (31 mM). These data demonstrated that the ΔldhD and ΔldhL1 deletions effectively eliminated major production of lactic acid and led to a mixed fermentation product profile.

Example 3 Construction of Plasmids for the Production of meso-2,3-butanediol

The purpose of this example is to describe the construction of a plasmid for expression of a heterologous butanediol dehydrogenase. The ldhL1 promoter region (SEQ ID NO:8) from L. plantarum PN0512 was amplified with primers AA135 (SEQ ID NO:61), containing EcoRI, SpeI, and AflII sites, and AA136 (SEQ ID NO:62), containing an XhoI site, from PN0512 genomic DNA using Phusion High-Fidelity PCR Master Mix. The resulting PCR fragment and pFP996 were ligated after digestion with EcoRI and XhoI to create vector pFP996PldhL1 (SEQ ID NO:36).

A secondary alcohol dehydrogenase encoded by the Achromobacter xylosoxidans sadB gene (coding region SEQ ID NO:9 and protein SEQ ID NO:10) was disclosed in U.S. Patent Appl No. 12/430,356. The sadB coding region was amplified with primers oBP112 (SEQ ID NO:50), containing XhoI, NheI, and EcoRV sites along with a ribosome binding site (SEQ ID NO:51), and oBP113 (SEQ ID NO:52), containing a KpnI site, from vector pRS426::FBA-budC+GPM-sadB using Phusion High-Fidelity PCR Master Mix. pRS426 is a yeast shuttle vector (American Type Culture Collection, Rockville, Md.), which contains an E. coli replication origin (e.g., pMB1), a yeast 2μ origin of replication, and Ura3 marker for nutritional selection. pRS426::FBA-budC+GPM-sadB contains the FBA promoter (SEQ ID NO:11) from the S. cerevisiae fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase gene operably linked to the budC coding region for butanediol dehydrogenase from Klebsiella pneumonia (coding region SEQ ID NO:12). In addition it has the yeast GPM1 promoter (SEQ ID NO:14) operably linked to the Achromobacter xylosoxidans sadB coding region (SEQ ID NO:9). The construction of pRS426::FBA-budC+GPM-sadB is described in Example 3 of U.S. Patent Appl No. 12/477,942, which is herein incorporated by reference.

The sadB coding region PCR fragment and pFP996PldhL1 were ligated after digestion with XhoI and KpnI to create vector pFP996PldhL1-sadB. The Klebsiella pneumoniae budC coding region for butanediol dehydrogenase (SEQ ID NO:12) was amplified with primers oBP114 (SEQ ID NO:56), containing a NheI site and a ribosome binding site, and oBP115 (SEQ ID NO:57), containing an EcoRV site, from vector pRS426::FBA-budC+GPM-sadB using Phusion High-Fidelity PCR Master Mix. The resulting PCR fragment and pFP996PldhL1-sadB were ligated after digestion with NheI and EcoRV to create vector pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB (SEQ ID NO:37). The sadB gene in vector pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB was deleted to create vector pFP996PldhL1-budC (SEQ ID NO:38). Vector pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB was digested with EcoRV and HindIII, the HindIII site was filled in with T4 DNAP, and then the plasmid was re-ligated. Candidates were screened by colony PCR with primers oBP42 (SEQ ID NO:54) and oBP57 (SEQ ID NO:58) for plasmids that did not contain the sadB gene and then sequenced.

Example 4 Production of meso-2,3-butanediol Using a Recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum Strain Grown in Rich Medium

The purpose of this example is to demonstrate the production of meso-2,3-butanediol using a recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum strain containing an engineered pathway in rich medium. Specifically, a Lactobacillus plantarum strain deleted for the two endogenous lactate dehydrogenases, LdhD and LdhL1, and containing a plasmid, pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB, expressing the Klebsiella pneumoniae budC coding region for butanediol dehydrogenase was grown in MRS medium. The first two enzymes for the butanediol pathway, acetolactate synthase and acetolactate decarboxylase, were provided by native expression from the chromosome. sadB encodes a butanol dehydrogenase that in the presence of 2-butanone would provide an electorn sink that could be required to balance redox equivalents for 2,3-butanediol production.

Wild-type Lactobacillus plantarum strain PN0512 and strain PNP0001 were transformed with plasmid pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB. Strains were transformed as in Example 1, except glycine was omitted from the medium for strain PNP0001. The resulting PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB strain was designated PNP0002 and the PN0512/pFP996-budC-sadB strain designated BP134. Strains were grown in MRS medium with 0.5% 2-butanone. Strains containing plasmids were grown in medium also containing 2 μg/ml of erythromycin.

145 ml of medium was inoculated with strains PNP0001, PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB (PNP0002), or PN0512/pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB (BP134) from overnight cultures at a dilution of 1:145 in 175 ml sealed serum bottles. Cultures were grown at 30° C. for 24 hours without shaking. Strain BP134 reached an OD600 6.5, strain PNP0001 an OD600 8.1, and strain PNP0002 an OD600 6.2. The cultures were started at a higher inoculum so there was a shorter lag and fewer doublings to get to saturation, to reduce the difference in growth that was observed in Example 2. Samples of the cultures were centrifuged at 3700×g for 10 minutes at 4° C. and the supernatants filtered through a 0.2 μm filter (Pall Life Sciences, Ann Arbor, Mich.). The filtered supernatants were analyzed by HPLC with column Shodex SUGAR SH1011 (Showa Denko K.K., Kawasaki, Japan) and refractive index detection for levels of glucose, citrate, acetate, lactate, acetoin, meso-2,3-butanediol, ethanol, succinate, and formate.

Results in FIG. 3 show the consumption of the medium constituents and the products that were formed. Strain BP134 consumed 84% of the glucose, 64% of the citrate, and no acetate. This strain produced, similar to the wild-type strain without the plasmid, almost entirely lactic acid, 172 mM. Strain PNP0001 consumed 91% of the glucose, 100% of the citrate, and 82% of the acetate. As in example 2, the main products of strain PNP0001 were acetoin (86 mM) and ethanol (73 mM), along with succinate (21 mM) and formate (8 mM). Strain PNP0002 consumed 92% of the glucose, 100% of the citrate, and 53% of the acetate. In contrast to strain PNP0001, no acetoin was detected for strain PNP0002. Instead, the main product was meso-2,3-butanediol (78 mM), along with ethanol (54 mM), succinate (19 mM), and formate (7 mM). Meso-2,3-butanediol accounted for 49 Mol % of the measured products. These data showed that with the presence of the heterologous budC expressing plasmid in the double ldh deletion strain, acetoin was converted to meso-2,3-butanediol when cells were grown in rich medium. The titer of meso-2,3-butanediol was 7.0 g/L with a yield of 0.41 g/g of glucose consumed.

Example 5 Production of meso-2,3-butanediol Using a Recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum Strain Containing Vector pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB Grown in Synthetic Medium with Glucose or Sucrose

The purpose of this example is to demonstrate the production of meso-2,3-butanediol using a recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum strain containing an engineered pathway in synthetic medium. Specifically, a Lactobacillus plantarum strain deleted for the two endogenous lactate dehydrogenases, LdhD and LdhL1, and containing a plasmid, pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB, expressing the Klebsiella pneumoniae budC coding region for butanediol dehydrogenase was grown in synthetic medium with glucose or sucrose. The first two enzymes for the butanediol pathway, acetolactate synthase and acetolactate decarboxylase, were provided by native expression from the chromosome.

Strain PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB (PNP0002) was grown in a synthetic medium with 20 mM glucose or sucrose and 2 μg/ml erythromycin. The synthetic medium consisted of: 10 mM ammonium sulfate, 100 mM MES pH6, 5 mM potassium phosphate pH 6, 1% S10 metal mix, 20 mM glucose or sucrose, 0.5% yeast extract, 0.01% casamino acids, and 10 mM ammonium citrate. 100% S10 metal mix consists of 200 mM MgCl₂, 70 mM CaCl₂, 5 mM MnCl₂, 100 μM FeCl₃, 100 μM ZnCl₂, 172 μM CuSO₄, 253 μM CoCl₂, 242 μM NaMoO₄, and 200 μM thiamine hydrochloride. All medium constituents were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, Mo.). 25 ml of medium was inoculated with PNP0002 and grown at 30° C. overnight without shaking in an anaerobic box containing a Pack-Anaero sachet (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co., Tokyo, Japan) to an OD600 0.72 (glucose) or 0.88 (sucrose). Overnight cultures were centrifuged for 5 minutes at 5 k RPM and then resuspended in fresh medium at a final dilution of 1:10. 25 ml of culture was grown in an anaerobic box with a Pack-Anaero sachet at 30° C. without shaking for 28 hours to an OD600 3.18 (glucose) or 4.52 (sucrose). Samples were centrifuged and supernatants filtered through a 0.2 μm filter (Pall Life Sciences, Ann Arbor, Mich.). The filtered supernatants were analyzed by GC with column HP-Innowax Polyethylene Glycol (19091N-113, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, Calif.) and flame ionization detection for levels of meso-2,3-butanediol, acetoin, and ethanol. The results in Table 5 show that meso-2,3-butanediol accounted for greater than 50% of the two main products, meso-2,3-butanediol and ethanol, similar to results obtained with rich medium.

TABLE 5 Production of meso-2,3-butanediol, acetoin, and ethanol by PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB grown in synthetic medium with glucose or sucrose. Concentration (mM) Culture meso-2,3-butanediol Acetoin ethanol Glucose 12.9 2.4 10.9 Sucrose 25.5 3.1 10.0 These data demonstrated that a recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum strain deleted for the ldhD and ldhL1 genes and containing a plasmid expressing the heterologous gene budC produced meso-2,3-butanediol when cells were grown in synthetic medium with either glucose or sucrose as the fermentable sugar.

Production of 2,3-butanediol without 2-butanone in the medium indicated that the additional electron sink was not needed to provide redox balance for the flux described.

Example 6 Production of meso-2,3-butanediol Using a Recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum Strain Containing Vector pFP996PldhL1-budC Grown in Synthetic Medium with Sucrose

The purpose of this example is to demonstrate the production of meso-2,3-butanediol using a recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum strain containing an engineered pathway in synthetic medium. Specifically, a Lactobacillus plantarum strain deleted for the two endogenous lactate dehydrogenases, LdhD and LdhL1, and containing a plasmid, pFP996PldhL1-budC, expressing the Klebsiella pneumoniae budC coding region for butanediol dehydrogenase was grown in synthetic medium with sucrose. The first two enzymes for the butanediol pathway, acetolactate synthase and acetolactate decarboxylase, were provided by native expression from the chromosome. Since Example 5 showed that no additional redox balancing electron sink was needed, sadB expression was not included.

Strain PNP0001 was transformed, as in Example 1 except glycine was omitted, with plasmids pFP996PldhL1 and pFP996PldhL1-budC. Strains PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1 and PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC were grown overnight in Lactobacilli MRS medium with 2 μg/ml erythromycin at 30° C. in an anaerobic chamber (Coy Laboratories Inc., Grass Lake, Mich.). Vials containing synthetic medium, which had been deoxygenated overnight in an anaerobic chamber, were inoculated with overnight culture to an OD600 of about 0.02 and sealed in the anaerobic chamber. The synthetic medium consisted of: 10 mM ammonium sulfate, 100 mM MES pH6, 5 mM potassium phosphate pH6, 1% S10 metal mix, 20 mM sucrose, 0.5% yeast extract, 0.01% casamino acids, 10 mM ammonium citrate, and 2 μg/ml erythromycin. Cultures were grown at 30° C. without shaking for 48 hours to an OD600 about 2.3. Samples of the cultures were centrifuged at 3700×g for 10 minutes at 4° C. and the supernatants filtered through a 0.2 μm filter (Pall Life Sciences, Ann Arbor, Mich.). The filtered supernatants were analyzed by GC with column HP-Innowax Polyethylene Glycol (19091N-113, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, Calif.) and flame ionization detection for levels of meso-2,3-butanediol, acetoin, and ethanol.

Results in Table 5 show the production of meso-2,3-butanediol, acetoin, and ethanol for strain PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC grown in synthetic medium with sucrose. The amount of meso-2,3-butanediol produced by this strain is comparable to PNP0001 with vector pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB (Example 5).

TABLE 5 Production of meso-2,3-butanediol, acetoin, and ethanol by PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1 and PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC grown in synthetic medium with sucrose. Concentration (mM) Strain meso-2,3-butanediol acetoin ethanol PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1 0.5 26.2 24.9 PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC 33.3 2.7 18.1

Example 7 Prophetic Production of 2-butanol by a Recombinant L. plantraum Strain Expressing B₁₂-Independent Diol Dehydratase

A vector expressing butanediol dehydrogenase encoded by the Klebsiella pneumoniae budC gene, secondary alcohol dehydrogenase encoded by the Achromobacter xylosoxidans sadB gene, and coenzyme B₁₂-independent (S-adenosylmethionine-dependent) butanediol dehydratase and its associated reactivase encoded by the Roseburia inulinivorans rdhtA (DNA SEQ ID NO: 15; protein SEQ ID NO:16) and rdhtB (DNA SEQ ID NO: 17; protein SEQ ID NO:18) genes respectively, is constructed. The Roseburia inulinivorans coenzyme B₁₂-independent propanediol dehydratase and reactivase are disclosed in US Patent Pub No. US20090155870A1. Therein the sequences encoding rdhtA and rdhtB were synthesized as one DNA fragment (SEQ ID NO:67) by standard methods and cloned into an E. coli vector (by DNA2.0, Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.) resulting in pJ206::rdhtAB.

The Roseburia inulinivorans rdhtA and rdhtB coding regions are amplified with primers rdhtAB-up (SEQ ID NO:59) and rdhtAB-down (SEQ ID NO:60), each containing a BsrGI restriction site, from vector pJ206::rdhtAB. The resulting PCR fragment and pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB are ligated after digestion with BsrGI and used to transform E. coli TOP10 cells. Plasmids that have the rdhtAB coding regions in the same orientation as budC and sadB are identified by PCR with primers rhdtAB-up (SEQ ID NO:59) and oBP42 (SEQ ID NO:54) and the resulting, correctly oriented clone is named pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB-rdhtAB.

Strain PNP0001 is transformed with vector pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB-rdhtAB as described in Example 1, except glycine is omitted from the medium. MRS medium containing 2 μg/ml erythromycin is inoculated with strain PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC-sadB-rdhtAB and grown overnight at 30° C. in an anaerobic chamber. Vials containing MRS medium with 2 μg/ml erythromycin, which is deoxygenated overnight in an anaerobic chamber, are inoculated with overnight culture at a 1:100 dilution and sealed in the anaerobic chamber. Cultures are grown at 30° C. without shaking for 48 hours. The culture supernatant is tested and 2-butanol is detected by HPLC or GC.

Example 8 Construction of the Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 ΔldhDΔldhL1ΔpflB2Δ2::alsS(o) Strain

The purpose of this example is to describe the construction of a Lactobacillus plantarum strain in the PN0512ΔldhDΔldhL1 strain background that is deleted for the genes pflB2, encoding formate C-acetyltransferase (pyruvate formate lyase), and pflA2, encoding the formate C-acetyltransferase activating enzyme, and thus does not contain formate C-acetyltransferase activity. Whereas Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 contains two genes encoding formate C-acetyltransferase and two genes encoding formate C-acetyltransferase activating enzyme, Lactobacillus plantarum PN0512 only contains one gene encoding formate C-acetyltransferase and one gene encoding formate C-acetyltransferase activating enzyme. A gene (alsS), codon optimized for expression in Lactobacillus plantarum, encoding the Bacillus subtilis acetolactate synthase enzyme was integrated in place of the deleted pflB2A2 genes.

The pflB2A2 gene knockout and alsS gene integration were constructed using the two-step homologous recombination procedure described above. The knockout deleted the C-terminal 351 amino acids (nucleotides 1204 through 2256 of the coding sequence) of PflB2 and the entire coding sequence of pflA2. The deleted sequence was replaced with a stop codon, in frame with the truncated pflB2, followed by a ribosome binding sequence and Bacillus subtilis alsS gene codon optimized for expression in Lactobacillus plantarum.

The knockout/integration vector was constructed in plasmid pFP996 as follows. The homologous arms to delete the pflB2A2 genes were amplified from PN0512 genomic DNA. The pflB2A2 left homologous arm was amplified using primers oBP309 (SEQ ID NO:104) containing an XhoI restriction site and oBP310 (SEQ ID NO:105) containing a stop codon (complement of TAA) and XmaI restriction site. The pflB2A2 right homologous arm was amplified using primers oBP271 (SEQ ID NO:106) containing a KpnI restriction site and oBP272 (SEQ ID NO:107) containing a BsrGI restriction site. The pflB2A2 left homologous arm was cloned into the XhoI/XmaI sites and the pflB2A2 right homologous arm was cloned into the KpnI/BsrGI sites of pFP996 to create pFP996-pflB2A2arms. The Bacillus subtilis alsS gene codon optimized for expression in Lactobacillus plantarum (SEQ ID NO:87; synthesized by Genscript Corp, Piscataway, N.J.) was amplified using primers oBP282 (SEQ ID NO:108) containing an XmaI restriction site and oBP283 (SEQ ID NO:109) containing a KpnI restriction site. The codon optimized alsS gene was cloned into the XmaI/KpnI sites of pFP996-pflB2A2arms to create pFP996-pflB2A2arms-als(o).

PN0512 ΔldhDΔldhL1 was transformed with pFP996-pflB2A2arms-als(o) as above, except competent cells were prepared in the absence of glycine, and transformants were selected on MRS plates containing 1 μg/ml erythromycin. A transformant was grown at 30° C. for about 35 generations by serial inoculations in MRS before cultures were plated on MRS containing erythromycin (1 μg/ml). Isolates were screened by colony PCR for a single crossover using chromosomal specific primer oAA227 (SEQ ID NO:110) and plasmid specific primer oBP42 (SEQ ID NO:54). A single crossover integrant was grown at 37° C. for approximately 35 generations by serial inoculations in MRS before cultures were plated on MRS medium. Erythromycin sensitive isolates were screened by colony PCR for the presence of a wild-type or deletion/integration second crossover using als(o) specific primer oAA228 (SEQ ID NO:111) and chromosomal specific primer oBP280 (SEQ ID NO:112). The deletion/integration strain PN0512 ΔldhDΔldhL1ΔpflB2A2::als(o)⁺, named BP556, was confirmed by sequencing the PCR product amplified with chromosomal specific primers oBP278 (SEQ ID NO:113) and oBP280 (SEQ ID NO:112).

Example 9 Production of meso-2,3-butanediol Using a Recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum Strain Lacking Both Lactate Dehydrogenase Activity and Formate C-Acetyltransferase Activity Grown in Rich Medium

The purpose of this example is to demonstrate the production of meso-2,3-butanediol using a recombinant Lactobacillus plantarum strain containing an engineered pathway in rich medium. Specifically, a Lactobacillus plantarum strain deleted for the two endogenous lactate dehydrogenases, LdhD and LdhL1, deleted for the formate C-acetyltransferase, PflB2, and containing a plasmid, pFP996PldhL1-budC, expressing the Klebsiella pneumoniae budC coding region for butanediol dehydrogenase was grown in MRS medium. The second enzyme for the butanediol pathway, acetolactate decarboxylase, was provided by native expression from the chromosome. The first enzyme for the butanediol pathway, acetolactate synthase, was provided by native expression from the chromosome and the heterologous Bacillus subtilis alsS gene integrated into the pflB2A2 locus.

Strain BP556 was transformed as in Example 1, except glycine was omitted, with plasmid pFP996PldhL1-budC. Strains PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC and BP556/pFP996PldhL1-budC were grown overnight in Lactobacilli MRS medium with 2 μg/ml erythromycin at 30° C. Overnight cultures were used to inoculate 5 ml MRS medium with 2 μg/ml erythromycin in 15 ml screw cap tubes. Cultures were grown at 30° C. without shaking in an anaerobic box containing a Pack-Anaero sachet (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co., Tokyo, Japan) for 24 hours to an OD600 about 6.5. Samples of the cultures were centrifuged at 3700×g for 10 minutes at 4° C. and the supernatants filtered through a 0.2 μm filter (Pall Life Sciences, Ann Arbor, Mich.). The filtered supernatants were analyzed by HPLC with column Shodex SUGAR SH1011 (Showa Denko K.K., Kawasaki, Japan) and refractive index detection. Greater than 99% of the glucose was consumed in both cultures. The pflB2A2 deletion led to no detectable levels of formate for strain BP556/pFP996PldhL1-budC, whereas strain PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC produced 20 mM formate. Production of meso-2,3-butanediol increased 12% for BP556/pFP996PldhL1-budC (92 mM) compared to PNP0001/pFP996PldhL1-budC (82 mM). 

1. A recombinant lactic acid bacterial cell comprising at least one gene encoding a heterologous polypeptide having butanediol dehydrogenase activity wherein the bacterial cell is substantially free of lactate dehydrogenase activity and wherein the cell produces 2,3-butanediol.
 2. The bacterial cell of claim 1 comprising a disruption in at least one endogenous gene encoding a polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity.
 3. The bacterial cell of claim 1 wherein the cell is a member of a genus selected from the group consisting of Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Oenococcus, Pediococcus, and Streptococcus.
 4. The bacterial cell of claim 1 further comprising at least one genetic modification that reduces pyruvate formate lyase activity.
 5. The bacterial cell of claim 4 wherein the genetic modification affects a gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase, a gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase activating enzyme, or both.
 6. The bacterial cell of claim 5 wherein the gene encoding pyruvate formate lyase is selected from the group consisting of pfl, pflB1 and pfl B2 and the gene encoding formate C-acetyltransferase activating enzyme is selected from the group consisting of pflA, pflA1, and pflA2.
 7. The bacterial cell of claim 1 wherein the cell produces a product selected from the group consisting of lactate, acetoin, ethanol, succinate, and formate.
 8. The bacterial cell of claim 7 wherein 2,3-butanediol comprises at least about 49 Mol % of all products produced from pyruvate.
 9. The bacterial cell of claim 2 wherein the polypeptide having lactate dehydrogenase activity is encoded by a gene selected from the group consisting of ldhL, ldhD, ldhL1, and ldhL2.
 10. The bacterial cell of claim 9 wherein the lactic acid host cell is Lactobacillus plantarum Lactococcus lactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Streptococcus thermophilus, Pediococcus pentosaceus, or Lactobacillus acidophilus.
 11. The bacterial cell of claim 1 wherein the cell produces 2-butanone.
 12. The bacterial cell of claim 1 wherein the cell produces 2-butanol.
 13. The bacterial cell of claim 12 comprising a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway.
 14. The bacterial cell of claim 11 comprising a 2-butanone biosynthetic pathway.
 15. A method for the production of 2-butanol comprising: a) providing the recombinant lactic acid bacterial cell of claim 1 comprising a 2-butanol biosynthetic pathway; and b) growing the bacterial cell of step (a) under conditions whereby 2-butanol is produced.
 16. A method for the production of 2-butanone comprising: a) providing the recombinant lactic acid bacterial cell of claim 1 comprising a 2-butanone biosynthetic pathway; and b) growing the bacterial cell of step (a) under conditions whereby 2-butanone is produced. 